


Loyalty Challenged

by Diary



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Bechdel Test Fail, Bottle Episode Fic, Conversations, Gen, Love, POV Brienne of Tarth, POV Female Character, Post-Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 10:43:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6114031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Did you hear what Lord Tyrion did to- her name was Shae, my lady." Complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loyalty Challenged

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Game of Thrones.

Brienne is used to the boy Jaime all but forced onto her being so quiet she sometimes forgets he’s even there, but lately, it seems there’s an air of perpetual sadness to him.

Finally, she says, “Podrick, if you wish to leave, I have told you, more than once, that you’re free to.”

He looks at her with startled eyes. “No, my lady.”

Unsurprised it wasn’t so easy, she desperately wishes this was just him bumbling through their training sessions. With them, even if she can’t always get him into the correct stance, at least, she knows how to prepare him so he’ll eventually be able to assume it.

“What’s wrong, then?”

“Wrong, my lady,” he repeats.

“Don’t echo me as if a simpleton,” she snaps. “We both know you’re smarter than that.”

There was a time, she thinks, that I was kind.

After telling him of the ball and Renly, she had been kinder to him, in a fashion, but there are still days when she finds herself wondering who the scowling, snappish creature she finds reflected back in Oathkeeper is.

Blaming Jaime would be too easy, too hard, and too dangerous, all in one.

“Nothing is wrong with me, my lady.”

No, she almost acknowledges aloud, nothing is. There’s no fault in loyalty, but if there were, you’d approach it.

Someone once said the same about her, but she knows better, now.

“You don’t have to tell me,” she says instead. “People have a right to their sadness.”

Gods knows she had her fill of men and women alike bidding her to smile and be more cheerful in her younger days.

He gives her another startled look.

After a stretch of silence, he blurts out, “Did you hear what Lord Tyrion did to- her name was Shae, my lady. It wasn’t her title, but I always called her ‘Lady Shae’.”

She remembers of hearing of Tywin Lannister’s death by the imp’s crossbow. Lately, there have additions featuring him killing his father’s concubine, too, but she’d paid no heed to them. For one, Tywin Lannister was notorious for his hatred of such women, and for two, Tyrion Lannister was notorious for his genuine fondness and, perhaps, a measure of respect towards them.

“You believe he did kill a wh- this Shae woman?”

“I don’t want to,” is his soft reply.

Feeling herself to be on extremely uncomfortable ground, she nevertheless presses herself to continue with, “If he did kill an innocent woman, that’s horrible, but Podrick, surely you weren’t so naïve as to fancy yourself in love with her.”

The look he gives her is full of incomprehension. “No, my lady. Lady Shae is the love of- I mean, I thought she was his and he was hers. Bronn found her during the war, and afterward, she stayed. Even during his marriage to Lady Sansa, he was-” Here he turns alarmingly red and mutters, “Loyal to her bed.”

“But you did like her."

“That’s- that’s not the point,” he cries out. Calming, he says, “I beg you forgive me, my lady.”

“Just get it out,” she says.

“Yes, I admired and liked her, my lady. But even if I didn’t- Even though he saved me, I can’t bring myself to care about Lord Tywin, my lady. I just can’t. Lord Tyrion could be cruel, my lady, but if anyone could do so with cause- The thought he’d hurt an innocent woman, and especially one that he loved and that loved him-” He looks at her with heart-breaking bewilderment.

Remembering something, she asks, “Didn’t she testify against him at his trial?”

Pod looks down. “He broke her heart to try to protect her, my lady. And I imagine the Lannisters caught her. I- I don’t know how I’d feel if he were the one dead instead of her.”

She almost goes on a tirade about blasted love but catches and stops herself.

Sighing, she says, “It’s okay if you don’t believe this, Podrick, but: All these mixed emotions are okay to have. I imagine part of you knows, but the truth is, even the people we love and admire the most are capable of being remarkably contradictory creatures, and our feelings for them can’t always be labelled as strictly good or bad.”

Nodding, he gives her a slight smile. “Yes. Thank you, my lady.”


End file.
